As personal mobile devices with wireless communications capabilities proliferate, so do privacy concerns. An increasing number of devices in the human environment detect other devices via wireless communications and record, catalog, and/or report information capable of uniquely identifying devices along with the locations where devices have been observed. For example, some databases in existence map the locations of hundreds of millions of wireless networks (e.g., that have been observed over time by various devices) as named by their service set identifiers (“SSIDs”).
Client devices may periodically transmit an SSID of a remembered network when searching for a suitable wireless network connection. These transmissions may also be observed, recorded, cataloged, and/or reported by unrelated third-party devices. Thus, a party may individuate and track the movement of a mobile device owner by the SSID transmitted by the mobile device. Furthermore, the subsequent ability to match the SSIDs transmitted by mobile devices in the field with SSIDs previously observed at the locations of corresponding wireless networks (e.g., the mobile device owner's home or place of work) may allow a party to not only track the movements of a mobile device owner, but to ascertain where the mobile device owner works or lives—potentially revealing the identity of the mobile device owner.
Thus, in order to frustrate the attempts by third parties to track the movements of individuals without consent, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for preventing tracking of mobile devices.